Saturday, June 06, 2009

A Mosque in Memphis and Eric Holder

Blue Collar Republican has tracked down some interesting connections between a mosque in Memphis and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who is accused of shooting two U.S. military personnel in Arkansas last week. In doing so, it became clear that Memphis may be linked to a pattern of anti-American and pro-Jihad activities.

Even more disturbing, Attorney General Eric Holder has singled out Muslim-Americans for specific -- and perhaps preferential -- treatment when it comes to law enforcement and domestic counterterrorism operations. On June 4, the DOJ website published this missive:

The President’s pledge for a new beginning between the United States and the Muslim community takes root here in the Justice Department where we are committed to using criminal and civil rights laws to protect Muslim Americans. A top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth.

There are those who will continue to want to divide by fear - to pit our national security against our civil liberties - but that is a false choice. We have a solemn responsibility to protect our people while we also protect our principles.

Several weeks ago, STRATFOR heard from sources that the FBI and other law enforcement organizations had been ordered to “back off” of counterterrorism investigations into the activities of Black Muslim converts. At this point, it is unclear to us if that guidance was given by the White House or the Department of Justice, or if it was promulgated by the agencies themselves, anticipating the wishes of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

I think that's entirely clear now.

Many FBI supervisors are reluctant to authorize investigations that they believe may have negative blow-back on their career advancement. In light of this institutional culture, and the order to be careful in investigations relating to Black Muslim converts, it would not be at all surprising to us if a supervisor refused to authorize a full-field investigation of Muhammad that would have included surveillance of his activities... Had the FBI opened a full-field investigation on Muhammad, and had it conducted surveillance on him, it would have been able to watch him participate in preoperational activities such as conducting surveillance of potential targets and obtaining weapons.

Put simply, Holder's public memo is circumstantial evidence that Stratfor's sources are spot on. Orders were very likely given to put the lid on counterterror operations involving Muslim converts -- of the exact sort to which Blue Collar Republican alludes.